A glimpse into the current status of VR game development at home and abroad: Are we falling behind this time?

Last Friday, a developer forum themed on VR games was held on Startup Street. The small coffee shop was packed with hundreds of people, making it very lively. This was just a small microcosm of the many VR gatherings in China that day. Nowadays, entrepreneurship and VR seem to have become the freshest and most dynamic pair of symbols in the context of sluggish economic growth.

However, when the guest asked how many people were engaged in VR game development at the scene, only a few people raised their hands. Although the composition of participants in such offline salons has a lot to do with various objective factors such as time, location and organizers, and is not convincingly representative, it can also reflect the current situation of domestic VR games to a certain extent: a large number of spectators.

When investors, players and media were all waiting in the audience, the protagonist on the stage did not appear. This situation inevitably made people a little worried: Is it that the hot VR game concept in China hides too many exaggerated bubbles, or is it that the offensive of Chinese developers is weak?

In response to these two questions, we interviewed several game development teams and other related practitioners at home and abroad. From the information we have so far, there are indeed significant differences in the VR game development environment at home and abroad, but it is certain that game content will become the next fortress in VR promotion.

VR games have become a global entrepreneurial hotspot, and the domestic hardware market may be reshuffled by content

After Oculus first went viral, a wave of VR startups emerged almost simultaneously at home and abroad. The difference is that domestic manufacturers are more concentrated in the hardware field. Statistics from an investment media show that since 2014, most VR-related investments have occurred at the hardware level, and only 15% of startup teams are engaged in content production. Among these teams, there are still some companies that focus on platform business, so the actual proportion is even lower.

At the end of last year, media reported that there were already 70 to 80 teams in the United States that were focused on VR content development, and that 16% of game developers in North America were engaged in VR content. The Dapeng VR all-in-one headset released last week also featured partners from South Korea and Spain. VR game development is in a high fever all over the world.

RalphVR CEO Richie Hoagland told us that most VR teams in the United States choose content as the direction of research and development because content is the key selling point of the device. (RalphVR is a startup company in the United States that focuses on VR game development. Its "Daydream Blue" won the gold medal in the game category of the 2015 Mobile VR Jam competition held by Oculus and once ranked first in the Gear VR sales list.) Many domestic hardware companies lack a clear enough strategy at the content level. Although the disadvantages are not obvious in the early market where VR resources are generally scarce, it will be difficult for them to survive once the content market matures.

Dapeng VR CEO Chen Chaoyang also said that in 2016, domestic capital will be inclined towards content. TVR's financing of tens of millions of yuan last month just confirmed this view. In addition, judging from the layout of Dapeng and Baofeng, content has entered the strategy of domestic hardware manufacturers.

It can be seen that the demand and prospects of VR games are unquestionable, and the opportunities are equal for domestic and foreign teams. However, the risk index of domestic teams is still far from the actual scale of capital and market.

VR game development routes differ between China and foreign countries; capital may dominate market integration

Of course, one of the reasons for the differences in the current status of domestic VR game development also comes from the hardware market environment and the so-called “genetic” problems left over from history.

On the one hand, the native VR hardware brands in mainland China are mainly mobile devices, including mobile phone boxes and all-in-one machines. So far, neither PSVR nor Oculus has included China in the list of countries for sale, and the price of HTC VIVE in China is much higher than the international version. These factors not only restrict consumers' choices, but also pose a big obstacle to the development team.

The so-called "gene problem" can be explained without VR. In the game market, PC and console games have never been the strong points of Chinese developers, and the reasons are not explored in this article. However, in the field of mobile games, the influence of domestic developers cannot be underestimated. Such "genes" will continue to play a role in the VR era. Zhang Yi, CEO of Beijing Internet Star Dream, believes that the advantages of domestic development teams are more reflected in the mobile terminal. (Internet Star Dream is a startup company focusing on the development of VR games for mobile platforms. It has released VR games "Fist of Scissors" and "Spirit Hunter", the latter of which was first released on the Dapeng platform.)

Based on the above two points, domestic VR game development teams and overseas teams have formed two forces: mobile game development and PC/console game development. Richie said that the three major head-mounted displays are the mainstream choice of American development teams, and most of the practitioners have 3A game development experience. Domestic teams that have made big moves in the VR game field are mostly winners in the mobile game era.

Another notable phenomenon is that the frequency of "foreign" faces appearing in domestic VR game-related forums is gradually increasing. Nikk Mitchell, CTO of Hangzhou Fanju Technology, told us that the number of foreign developers choosing the Chinese market is further increasing. Richie also expressed his desire to enter the Chinese market.

The enthusiasm of Chinese consumers and the huge market prospects are the reasons. In addition, the driving role of capital cannot be ignored. It is reported that Ruidong Capital, a domestic fund focusing on VR investment, is about to introduce several overseas VR game projects.

There are some details that must be mentioned before the two flowers bloom.

In the end, it is still difficult to judge whether VR games will first explode in the PC/console market or mobile VR games will take the lead. From the perspective of development rules, PC/console and mobile platforms are more like two different stages of VR development, similar to the transition from the PC era to the mobile phone era. The industry generally believes that mobility is the general direction of VR's future development. Even so, the process cannot be ignored, because no one knows how long it will last.

Liang Wenjing, director of game development and business development at Baofeng Mojing, revealed at the salon that even in the development of mobile VR games, some emerging teams still have a lot of room for improvement in basic skills. Li Yifei, founder of Sanqi Interactive Entertainment, believes that in the high-tech industry, North American teams are more creative than Chinese teams. Foreign engineers engaged in development in China said that the communication between Chinese game development teams is not open enough, and communication problems have even led to the abortion of some projects.

During the discussion, we found that the most talked-about keywords in the domestic market are nothing more than platform, IP, and capital. Considering the scenario described at the beginning of the article, the agitation in the domestic VR game market is still a little worrying. In this way, the scarcity of VR game content at this stage is a good thing. If the number of VR games explodes overnight, the impact on the entire industry will be unimaginable. After all, no one wants the Atari incident to repeat itself in the VR process. Fortunately, there is no shortage of conscientious production teams in the domestic market who are sincerely checking VR games.

Often, sentiment gives way to profit - this situation exists in the global game market. Bringing the most shocking experience to players while adapting to their respective markets should be the common goal of VR game developers regardless of region or platform restrictions. Whether the differences in the starting stages will eventually lead to the two VR game markets at home and abroad is something worth looking forward to.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.